Comparison

On Instruments vs Air Manager

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

On Instruments

Hone your instrument flying skills with this simulator. Navigate various courses by precisely managing heading, altitude, and airspeed. Features multiple difficulty levels, including courses with instrument failures.

Highlights
  • Instrument scanning practice
  • Multiple course difficulties
  • Heading, altitude, airspeed control
  • Attitude Indicator failure simulation
  • Score maximization
Features
Read full description

Practice and hone your IFR instrument scanning skills while playing a variety of courses “On Instruments”. Each course includes a series of heading, altitude, and airspeed changes that must be flown with precision to maximize your score. Courses are divided into Easy, Intermediate and Expert Levels. Additional courses without course guidance are available, as well as a series with an Attitude Indicator failure.

About

Air Manager

Design custom flight simulator instrument panels on your iPad. Connect to popular simulators like X-plane and FS2020 to use your iPad as a primary or secondary instrument display. Offers over 1000 free instruments and intuitive touch controls for a realistic simulation experience.

Highlights
  • Custom instrument panel design
  • iPad as primary/secondary display
  • Connects to X-plane, FS2020, P3D, FSX
  • Over 1000 free instruments
  • Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
  • Control simulator functions via touch
Features
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Air Manager lets you design custom flight simulator instrument panels on your iPad. Panels can connect to X-plane, FS2020, FS2024, Prepar3d and FSX. Use your iPad as a primary instrument panel and have your computer monitor for outside view only, or use your iPad as a secondary com stack to easily set frequencies through the iPad touch screen. Air Manager comes with more than 1000 free instruments. Add, drag, scale, build your instrument panel in only a matter of minutes. Save your created panels, and switch between them quickly. User friendly No difficult settings or downloading and configuring of third party applications. You can download the necessary plugins from our website for free. We offer a complete solution! Place instruments anywhere you like Tap an instrument to add it to the canvas, hold and drag to rearrange, and pinch to scale, it’s as easy as that. Loads of free instruments The application comes with more than 1000 free instruments, and this collection keeps growing. Buttons, Switches and Knobs Controls like Buttons, Switches, and Knobs let you control the simulator from your 2D panels, so your Flight Simulation is super realistic. Setting a radio frequency or the altimeter setting, moving electrical switches, and controlling the autopilot are just a few examples of what you can do without directly accessing the flight simulator. Multiplatform and multi simulator The Air Manager plugin runs on Microsoft Window, Mac OSX, and Linux, both 32 bits and 64 bits, and is compatible with Laminar Research X-Plane 9, 10 and 11, Microsoft FSX and Lockheed Martin Prepar3D.

Screenshots

On Instruments4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: On Instruments at $2.99 against Air Manager's $22.99. On Instruments also leads on review sentiment (75% vs 31%) and rating (4.4 vs 3.1). Air Manager's advantage is ratings volume (27 vs 9). On update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

On Instruments costs $2.99 and Air Manager $22.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On Instruments holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 27 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of On Instruments's written reviews are positive against 31% of Air Manager's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

On Instruments ships an update every 8 months, Air Manager every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
On Instruments versus Air Manager: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOn InstrumentsAir Manager
Price$2.99 — better$22.99
Rating4.4 (9 ratings) — better3.1 (27 ratings)
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews — better30.8% of reviews
Number of ratings927 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 months — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPad
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB897 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAircraft Training Aids, LLCSim Innovations B.V.

Customer experience

On Instruments

All ratings9 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral0.0%
Negative11.1%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative12.5%

Air Manager

All ratings27 ratings
Positive51.9%
Neutral3.7%
Negative44.4%
Written reviews107 reviews
Positive30.8%
Neutral15.0%
Negative54.2%

In-app purchases

None

On Instruments

No in-app purchases

None

Air Manager

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is On Instruments free?
On Instruments costs $2.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Air Manager free?
Air Manager costs $22.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, On Instruments or Air Manager?
On Instruments is rated higher. On Instruments averages 4.4 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while Air Manager averages 3.1 from 27 ratings.
Do On Instruments or Air Manager have ads?
Neither On Instruments nor Air Manager shows ads.
Which is updated more often, On Instruments or Air Manager?
On Instruments ships an update every 8 months, and Air Manager every 10 months. Most recently, On Instruments was updated on September 24, 2026 and Air Manager on September 18, 2026.

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